The NFL​​ Draft process is fascinating for numerous reasons, but my favorite is learning about each prospect’s journey. From the first time he touches a football until he is on the doorstep of a professional career, the journey helps illustrate who that player is and where he is headed.

Whether in football or life, few journeys are alike, and mine is no exception.

Growing up in Northeast Ohio in the mid-’90s, I gravitated toward baseball. And who could blame me? While the Browns were headed to Baltimore, the Indians were competing for the World Series.

But when the Browns returned to the league with the No. 1 overall pick as an expansion franchise in 1999, I discovered my love for the NFL Draft. I became enamored with the process of examining what made a college player a viable pro prospect.

This captivation led to an overzealous hobby, which I was determined to evolve into a career. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do.

If you want to be a doctor, you go to medical school.

If you want to be a lawyer, you go to law school.

If you want to scout, analyze or evaluate football, specifically the NFL Draft, what do you do?

My best answer: put myself in as many situations to learn, network and grow as a scout.

I attended Division III football powerhouse Mount Union, where I lived in the football and sports information offices. My senior year, NFL scouts would come through to check out a “small school” talent named Pierre Garçon. And as the Student Football SID, I would often coordinate their stay. Several pro scouts graciously took me under their wing and allowed me to shadow their day-to-day process while on campus.

Following college, I moved to Frisco, Texas, and worked in sports PR for minor league baseball, the Super Bowl and men’s Final Four. But on the side, my passion for the NFL Draft led me to studying players, paying my way to scouting events and creating my annual NFL Draft Guide.

One of my “breaks” came when friend and Hall of Fame journalist Charean Williams introduced me to longtime Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans scout C.O. Brocato, who lived in nearby Arlington. I accompanied the scouting legend at pro days and other scouting events, furiously taking down notes both in my notebook and my head.

Brocato, who introduced the three-cone drill to the scouting community, taught me the basic techniques when timing prospects (use your index finger, not your thumb on a stopwatch), the key traits to recognize at each position, and how the most important evaluation for a scout is self-evaluation. He helped create my scouting foundation.

One of my most treasured memories came one spring when Brocato, who wasn’t feeling well, asked me to attend the TCU pro day on his behalf and record the testing times. After charting every throw by Andy Dalton and timing Jeremy Kerley in the 40-yard dash, I returned to deliver the results and report my thoughts. I stepped through the door and found Gil Brandt, the Cowboys’ former VP of player personnel, sitting across from Brocato at the kitchen table. Not wanting to interrupt, I entered the kitchen, leaned against the counter and spent the next hour as a fly on the wall, soaking in the information the two titans of the industry were sharing with each other.

I couldn’t major in scouting in college, so these experiences became my scouting education.

This personal stroll down memory lane brings me to the original point: Why is The Athletic the next step in my journey?

This summer, I had several options on the table — both in and out of the media. But it was the passion I witnessed at The Athletic to deliver quality content and grow its NFL Draft coverage that led to this decision.

So after seven enjoyable years with NFL Draft Scout (including six of those years at CBS Sports), I am excited to announce I have joined The Athletic as a national NFL writer, specifically covering the NFL Draft. I am extremely proud and humbled to be part of a roster that includes so many talented journalists and storytellers.

I will always be a die-hard NFL Draft fan at heart, so my focus as an analyst has been to treat my job like an NFL scout and create content I would want to read. And I promise that is what I will continue to do at The Athletic: prospect rankings, player interviews, film breakdowns and hundreds and hundreds of scouting reports.

The Athletic is giving me the opportunity to continue my passion-filled journey of scouting players and I am very thankful for all of you who are along for the ride.